Hey all, Dani here.
It’s the return of Manga Monday!! Okay, it is a manga review posted on a Monday, and I do have several manga reviews I need to write, but I haven’t started regularly scheduling that blog series just yet. I’d like to get a little more caught up on some of my other review backlog first. But I will be bringing Manga Mondays again at some point, because it was nice to know that every Monday I would have a manga review. And since I read manga quickly, it is an easy series of posts to get finished ahead of time. So…I don’t know, maybe in September or October I’ll start having a manga review every Monday again. I really have to sit down and plan out my September posts, which I’ll probably be doing bit by bit this week and into the weekend.
All right, so I read this volume last year, and had planned to have it up around its release date. By now I’m sure you’re all aware that I really started slumping in terms of blogging and reading last year, so this post obviously didn’t go up in time. However, it is still a timely review as the anime is nearing this arc, and it’s going to get amazingly ridiculous, so buckle up.
Let’s jump into the review.
Midoriya inherits the superpower of the world’s greatest hero, but greatness won’t come easy.
What would the world be like if 80 percent of the population manifested superpowers called “Quirks”? Heroes and villains would be battling it out everywhere! Being a hero would mean learning to use your power, but where would you go to study? The Hero Academy of course! But what would you do if you were one of the 20 percent who were born Quirkless?
Since the terrifying incident when Tomura’s Quirk manifested, only the greatest villain of them all, All For One, has been able to speak to the broken young boy’s heart. The consequences of that fateful meeting play out in the present as Tomura and Re-Destro, the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, battle for supremacy—and if it takes leveling a whole city to sort out who’s on top, so be it!
My Thoughts:
Rating: 5 stars
This volume really does focus us on Shigaraki and his youth and growth and the experiences that brought him to this point.
I really like that as this manga has grown and continued, that it has also spread its focus more and more. We’ve had chapters that focus on other students at UA. We’ve had chapters focused on some of the various Pro Heroes. And we’ve even had chapters and volumes that show us the villains and their side of things. I think it is a wonderfully compelling element to storytelling…to create and develop villains in a way that they are more than just a flat bad guy to stand in the way. We see them as events change them, much in the same way they do for our heroes. Having a villain where we can understand the changes they go through, whether or not we agree with the decisions they make, makes for a much richer story.
Plus getting to see as these two villain groups clash and align is fascinating. It’s also terrifying because both sides have some serious power behind them, and it makes me both excited and nervous for who all the heroes will need to face soon enough.
In some ways, through these 25 volumes, I’ve found myself feeling more and more upset that the UA students don’t really seem to get a whole lot of fun and downtime anymore. Sure, we used to have little festivals and little parties and stuff, but now it’s like one big villain situation after another. Granted, from the villain standpoint this can be a smart and strategic way to handle things. There are only so many heroes, and if you wear them down and break them apart enough, eventually you might just win.
Honestly I’m really looking forward to seeing the Meta Liberation Army arc in the anime. Overall there are some really intense battles and some fairly dramatic moments. It should be pretty entertaining.
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Well, that is all from me for today. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
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